Shape Deposition Manufacturing (SDM) is a developing Rapid Prototyping technology in which mechanisms are simultaneously fabricated and assembled. As shown in this figure, the basic SDM cycle consists of alternate deposition and shaping (in this case, machining) of layers of part material and sacrificial support material.

This cycle of material deposition and removal results in three key features:

Building parts in incremental layers allows us complete access to the internal geometry of any mechanism.

This access allows us to embed actuators, sensors and other pre-fabricated functional components inside the structure.

By varying the materials used in the deposition process, we can spatially vary the material properties of the mechanism itself.

The resulting mechanisms can have almost arbitrary geometry, embedded actuators and sensor and locally-varying stiffness properties, making them more robust and simpler to control.

Please follow the links below for examples and tutorials on prototypes built using SDM: